Mirror Mirror
by hidingbehindafakename
Summary: Taylor does not trigger. Instead, after her mother s funeral, the devastated girl discovers a certain mirror that once belonged to her mother. A mirror that leads to the world of dreams, the Parabola. There, many beings are ready to make deals...
1. A cosmogone Discovery

**Mirror mirror**

 **A/N: So... new story. This is a crossover between Worm and Fallen London, the latter of which is not to be found on this site. I sent an e-mail some time ago, but … no answer. So I have just posted it here under "Worm".**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Anything at all.**

* * *

 _17:00 o´clock_

The girl sat on the porch of her home. The home where she had grown up, the home where her mother had raised her.

Her mother was gone. One careless moment on the phone was all it took to take her away, away from her husband, away from her daughter. And she wouldn´t be coming back. Not ever.

The father tried to make a brave face, but the girl could see that it was fake. She was young, barely even a teenager, but she saw through the father´s facade. He was a wreck. And so was the girl.

The phone-call from the hospital in the morning. The father´s face breaking. They rushed to the hospital, too late.

The feeling was unreal. The girl was lost, crying but also just still. Unbelieving. _"This can´t be real."_ she thought. But she was wrong; her mother was not coming back.

The sunshine, bright and cheery, contrasting with the feeling of abandonment. The girl even now had the hunch that her father would stay broken, until fixed. But she also knew that only the return of her mother would fix him. She got up, unable to face the mocking sun anymore.

Inside the house, in the large central kitchen, the father was busy. Busy consuming the collection of wines her mother had collected. Her mother´s wines were of an exotic sort; she had a preference to a peculiar mushroom-wine. Most visitors hated the brand – Grayfields – but the girl´s parents had grown very fond of it. What the father was drinking wasn´t a bottle of Grayfields, however, but rather a box of "Bottled Oblivion". Guaranteed to make you forget. The last few weeks.

He has been drinking the last few weeks, unable to cope.

The girl´s friend has tried to cheer her up. But the friend simply cannot relate. Her world is filled with boys, fashion and popularity. The girl does not have another friend, nobody in a similar situation.

Excepting her father. She turns to him in the vague hope of some kind of consolation. But...

The father returns the girl´s gaze with the eyes of a dead man drinking.

Wordlessly, she walks past him and into her room.

Into her bed.

* * *

 _23:00 o´clock_

The haunted girl´s dreams are suffused by a cosmogone glare. The mocking sunlight makes it impossible to find rest, and the lightly sleeping girl is tossing and turning in her bed. The father lies, dead to the world, in the kitchen.

Finally, a faintly glowing snake winds itself into her dream, bringing a soft shade of viric. The greenish colour brings a semblance of rest.

* * *

 _3:00 o´clock_

But eventually the girl wakes, the viric dream to shallow to bring true rest. In a daze, the haunted girl looks around her room. It is a near-complete darkness. The piles of clothing on the floor, the piles of books in her shelves. Everything seems normal.

But underneath the door is a faint green glow, one the half-remembers from her dreams. She slowly lifts her upper body, while reaching for the glasses on her night-stand. From behind the door, she can hear a faint symphony of birdsong. Simultaneously discordant and melodic, at the same time gratingly harsh and charmingly intricate. The girl shakes her head and slowly gets out of her bed, navigating the piles of unwashed clothing, and finally reaching the door. Touching the handle, she hesitates. The music is swelling. Where was a faint melody before is now a roaring symphony, and the green glow framing her door is blinding. She takes a deep breath, and opens the door.

Silent darkness greets her.

Nothing. The haunted girl gradually turns around, but there is not a trace to be seen or heard. Nonetheless she has the feeling of being watched, as if someone were coming up just behind her. On impulse, she turns around suddenly. Something is indeed watching her: a spider. The arachnid seems sorrowful to the girl, but then most things seem to be filled with pain. The spider scuttles away, and the haunted girl turns around and continues down the hallway. Past the small living-room, past the kitchen and the insensate father, and down the stairs into the cellar.

Something is pulling at the girl, a force that will not be denied.

The door to the cellar is slightly ajar, and once again something is different. Amber rays fan out and illuminate the stairwell, and the girl smells a overwhelmingly wonderful scent. Lilies. Her mother´s favorite. The door to the cellar is painted in lilac.

The scent wakes memories already half-forgotten. For all the pain and sorrow her absence has brought to the girl and her father, the girl had forgotten many small things about her mother. The thing that comes to mind is her preferred colour: lilac. The girl´s mother always wore variations of the same dress, always in one particular shade of lilac. Once or twice, while swimming, she wore a lilac swimsuit that revealed a dozen of more tattoos, in every shape and colour imaginable.

But then she was taken by a cruel accident.

The haunted girl suddenly comes to her senses. She has been standing there, in front of the cellar-door for quite some time. With trepidation, she reaches for the handle and slowly pulls the door open.

The amber light does not vanish. The entire cellar seems empty, filled with nothing but spider-webs and a large mirror in the middle. The amber rays seem to spring from within the mirror. With a start, she realises that this is the first time she ever visited the cellar. She haltingly turns around and approaches the mirror.

It is a gigantic thing, easily thrice as big as the girl. As she comes closer, the amber glare subsides to a faint glow. The frame seems to be made of mahogany, a massive piece burnished to a deep and treacherously sensuous sheen, carved with beetles and the twining roots of trees.

The girl reaches for the frame, and strokes it. At the same time, she looks into the mirror. A huge panther, easily four feet tall at its shoulders. The girl turns around, at fast as she can.

She barely sees the vanishing tail of the neighbour´s cat. Spooked, she turns back and looks at the mirror. Her forefinger touches the glowing glass.

The light of a summer day comes to her mind, happy memories of reading with her mother and equally happy memories of walking around the docks with her father. These two memories of light and happiness flare and vanish into the mirror. Leaving the girl´s soul just a little bit colder. The forefinger slowly slips into the glass of the mirror, and the mirror stops being merely a mirror, and starts being a doorway, a window into something/where/when else.

Beyond the glass – is there glass? - there is a bright world, a beautiful world of colour and light. The amazed girl looks around.

She is no longer in the cellar.

What is a cellar?

She is sad.

But why?

She stands in a jungle, peppered with mirror-frames showing many, many scenes. Above, curious birds fly, in the trees serpents twist and on the ground a huge golden lioness herds her kittens.

Behind the girl, there is an empty mirror-frame. She looks at it, and for a moment she is standing by an empty grave, holding a bunch of lilies. The scene is blurred by tears. For a moment, the girl remembers, but then the recollections fade, and she wanders deeper into the jungle.

 _TBC_


	2. A Court of Cats

**A/N: Thanks for that wonderful, uplifting rewiew. Incredibly inspiring.**

 **Also, I neither own Worm (that would be Wildbow), nor anything from Fallen London (that would be FBG)**

* * *

?.? o´clock

As the girl walks further into the mirror-infested jungle, she comes across the lioness again. This time, the latter stops playing with her litter and meets the girls eyes.

"Why is a stripling such as yourself in my march? Do you not know the dangers of this place?"

The girl is frightened, as the shoulders of the lioness stand nearly as tall as the girl´s head. One of the kittens, the largest one, looks up at the girl as well. Looking up and down her body, the kitten focuses on the girl´s shoelaces, one of which has come undone. Immediately, the kitten strikes and does its best to pull the interesting cord. At first the pulling is successful, but then the kitten has pulled all it can without destroying the shoe. Nonetheless, it pulls. That doesn´t work. It gets down on its haunches, puts the piece of cord down, prepares itself, and pulls again. Now, if the kitten were a normal kitten, that would not have mattered much. But this kitten definitely inherited some of its mother´s size and strength. The girl is surprised and falls, narrowly avoiding crushing the kitten.

The lioness huffs an exasperated huff. "Be careful!" Then she turns back to the girl. "Your clothes. They are very foreign. You do not hail from these lands or the fifth city, do you?"

Bewildered, the girl replies "What is the fifth city? Where am I? And WHO am I?"

The lioness grins. Indeed. Who are you. Excuse me -" She turns to the kitten sitting on the girls leg, gnawing at her shoelaces. "-but Maybe! Show a modicum of politeness please." The Kitten (Maybe?) stops `eating`, but is does not move.

"Well," the lioness comments, "that is as much as I can hope for." She turns back to the girl. "Nevermind the fifth city. You are in a very dangerous place, my dear. A different type of existence than you humans are usually used to. This is my domain, the Mirror-Marches, and it is but a border between this Is-Not and the Is you hail from."

The girl just blinks, confused. "What?"

The lioness sighs. "Come, follow me to my court. It will be safer there. Even though the Mirror-Marches are my domain, the snakes and bats are a constant danger." She gestures sharply with her tail. "Follow me, girl. Perhaps we can solve this messy position you are in. Maybe you will even find a place in my court."

She hers the other kitten before her and starts to stalk into the distance. The girl slowly rises, and winces as the kitten on her climbs up her torso and sits on her head. It bows down to whisper in her ear: "Hello. I am Maybe, the Heir presumptive of the Mirror-Marches. What is your name?".

"I don´t really..." she stammers out before Maybe loses her patience.

"Ah, right. You don´t know. Well, if mum takes you in, you could by my valet. Is that good? I bet it is. And now you´d best follow mum. She gets angry if you ignore her. And besides, even mum´s march can be very dangerous to children like us."

As if to prove her words, a violet mountain-range, pinned to the sky and pointing downwards, twirls across said sky. Giant cats, not unlike the golden lioness stalk around them, disregarding the fact that they really should fall down by any means of logic.

The girl hurries to follow.

As the small group treads through the jungle, the girl notices several things. First, Maybe might be a giant lion-kitten, but she is still a very restless kitten with sharp claws. Second, the Mirror-frames that the (march?) is named after are everywhere, with many different shapes. The various scenes one can see are constantly changing, but seem to be curiously consistent.

One frame, made of iron glowing white-hot, seems to focus on a particular scenario: a black-skinned giant bursting out of the earth and burning everything to ashes.

The girl sees a second, similar set-up reflected in a perfectly round oval of water caught in a spider-web. A dripping monster bursting shorelines apart, sinking islands and surfing on rivers.

And yet another, feathery-white frame shows an angelic figure floating above a malevolent mob consisting of monkeys. They are armed with forks.

Each of these frame-views wakes memories of dread, but they do not cause a real remembering. Nonetheless, the girl walks up to the last one, the feathery one, and nearly touches it. In the last second, Maybe bites the girls scalp. She starts and withdraws her hand.

"Look out!" Maybe scolds her "I don´t want to lose my future valet to some random mirror. Focus on mum. She knows where to go."

The girl nods.

Still, the scenes are extremely interesting, and she cannot help but look into each and every one of them. And feel a lot of curiosity.

"What is up with all these mirror-frames? Why do they show so many scenes?" she quietly asks Maybe.

She answers with a conspiratorial glance: "They are places where the Mirror-March connects with the Is, the real world."

"So dangerous people could enter through every frame." she realizes.

"Yes." Maybe confirms "But besides deranged madmen and dangerous beasts, the mirrors can be directly dangerous as well. You can hurt yourself, both mentally and physically on the frames: they always represent the scene they portray, and the picture you might see will often affect you personally." She grins down at you "So follow mum and you should be fine."

* * *

The small group continues for some time, until they face a large tree draped with felines, mostly lions. One of the bigger roots supports a equally big cushion. The lioness jumps on it and adopts a sphinx-like pose. A smaller lion, just underneath the pillow, stands and announces: "In my position as the echoing herald, I announce the presence of our liege-lady, the Marchioness of the Mirror-Marches, her daughter, the Heir presumptive of the Mirror-Marches, her son, the Baronet of Boundaries, and..." The flow of titles stops as the Herald focuses on the girl.

Maybe steps in with an excited trill "My future valet!".

The lioness (Marchioness?) closes her eyes in a moment of quiet frustration, but the deed is done. The Herald´s eyes glint with curiosity. "And finally the future valet of the Heir presumptive of the Mirror-Marches!" Then he settles down to watch the proceedings.

The Marchioness lifts her head and addresses her court, a assembly of around fifty felines. "Today, as went on my customary stroll through my territory, showing my potential heir its quirks, I encountered this lost girl. She, interestingly enough, does not hail from the fifth city or anywhere else in the Neath."

With that snippet of information, the court pays very close attention.

She continues: "And we all know what that means. My realm is by its very nature the border to the realms of existence. And where ever this girl hails from, her lands are unknown and can likely offer much to a crafty feline."

Several cats lying close to the Marchioness´ cushion lift their heads, conveying their desire to speak. The Herald glances at the Marchioness, and she give a slight nod, to which the Herald announces: "The court will hear the Baron of Blazes.

A smallish tiger half-rises from his position. "Thank you. In my position of ambassador to the Banded Prince, I must ask this: should we involve the other courts or even other powers?" The tiger settles again.

"No." The Marchioness` simple answer results in a great deal of excited tail-lashing. "This is an unprecedented opportunity. A whole realm filled with goods that only we of the Mirror-Marches know about. A significant advantage over the serpents and the bats. Especially the latter are, as we all know, constantly trying to dominate the roads into this realm, the Parabola. And the snakes will always seek to dominate unsuspecting mortals."

"That is all good for us, but what is this business about the human being appointed valet of the heir presumptive? Some of us have been seeking that position for years!" a stern tigress growls. Maybe shrinks back and whispers in the girls ear: "That is one of my cousins. She is scary."

The Marchioness sighs. "That was mainly my daughter being cheeky. But in the end, only she can decide who is to be her servant." She turns to the girl, who has been silently staring at the assembled cats. "Do you agree to be my daughter´s valet? At least until you gain some of your memories back."

The girl, who had been listening intently, looks first at the Marchioness and then looks up at Maybe, still perched on her head. The big, innocent green eyes of Maybe cannot be resisted.

"Yes, I would." she says simply.

However, before the Marchioness can finalize the appointment, the stern tigress intervenes. She jumps down in front of the girl and inspects her. After a thorough inspection, she looks up to the Marchioness and states: "I beg your pardon, but I believe that you should not be that careless before committing this. Is there any proof that this girl is really from a previously unknown realm? If so, I would require proof." Her eyes narrow. "Otherwise I might have to let a few clues about this girl slip the next time I converse with my counterpart in the court of the Prince of Wounds."

The Marchioness´ tail lashes once. "Are you threatening this court?"

"No." The stern tigress slyly replies. "Merely hinting at possible consequences. Besides, wouldn´t you also desire proof?"

"You have a point there." The Marchioness sighs. "Very well. Nkoe, - " here she nods at the stern tigress "- you will escort my daughters valet to the mirror she entered in. My daughter can lead the way." She turns to the girl. "They will lead the way to your mirror. Fear not, the loss of memory is not nearly as extensive when traveling to the real world from here. Memories you have gained here will stay, allowing you to enter the Mirror-Marches again." She appears thoughtful. "That is probably the reason you lost your memories. You had to pay the way. Nkoe will guard the mirror for a couple of days. I will require something unique from your realm. Just take an assortment. Something will hopefully convince even the most obstinate members of my court."

TBC


End file.
